Dramatic Beginnings of Norway's History? Archaeology and Indo-Europeanization Christopher Prescott, Institute of Archaeology, Art History and Conservation, University of Oslo, Norway Nordic archaeology’s attitude to identity, ethnicity, language and the Indo-European question has been intricate, and has varied through time. The nature of group identities, especially ethnicity was according to cultural historical archaeology something in the very heart of people – people were born into an ethnic identity that was characterized by common language, culture and “blood”. In the wake of Frederik Barth’s seminal introduction to “Ethnic groups and boundaries” (1969) this view was challenged. Barth emphasized the instrumentalist nature of ethnicity, and in his article the important element was not the idea of a primordial ethnic and cultural core, but instead emphasis on the maintenance and negotiation of boundaries. In Barth’s argument, ethnicity becomes a dynamic means of handling difference and a medium of interaction. Continued work on concepts of identity and ethnicity, influenced by sociologists like Bourdieu and Giddens, emphasized the historical depth of ethnic identities, and look beyond an instrumentalist approach to modeling the establishment, constitution and reproduction through over- and along-the-border interaction (Jones 1997). Recent work has sought a “contextual” approach, i.a. looking for the establishment of ideas of shared fundamental institutions, norms, practices and myths. Such shared institutions do not in themselves constitute an ethnic identity, but in time become referential nodes, practically embodied experience and ideas of shared history. Institutions, norms, practices and myths become instruments and cultural capital for the generation of shared identities (Prescott and Glørstad 2012). Numerous articles and books discuss “Norwegians” in prehistoric times (Brøgger 1925, Hagen 1975, Munch 1852, Shetelig 1925), from the Mesolithic and on, though today the national label is more implied than explicitly argued. And indeed, this usage of “Norwegian” can probably primarily be attributed to a loose use of the term, and/or taken to mean “the peoples living in what was to become Norway” at a given time. However, there is an evolutionary approach that emphasizes long lines and continuity in history; though contemporay Norwegians are the cumulative result of 10000 years of history, there is also a tradition that discusses Germanic identities and the Nordic language in or